June 13, 2026 • 41 mins
Jason Smith and Steve DeSaegher filling in for Mike Harmon discuss Wemby's controversial comments about the Spurs winning the Finals despite being down 3-1.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello, Welcome in Side hour three The Jason Smith Show
with special delivery Steve de Seger in for Mike Harmon
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Let us know what you think, agree, disagree again. We
(00:54):
love putting this content out for you every single night.
We got some big team i say content going up
there in a little bit after their big win tonight
over Powerguay for to one and look there's a lot
of plaudits going on. We'll have time to get into
Polisic and battle again again and everything we saw tonight
that was so good. Now the update we've gotten from
(01:16):
Team USA about Christian Polisic, who played. Probably he and
Baligan were the two best players in the first half
easily for the United.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
States, and not the only good players.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, no, not that they were the best of the
good players that I mean, because look, it was as
dominant a half, as good a game the United States
has played. I'll go back twenty some odd years, right,
and you see other people that are older than I
am watching soccer longer, going, I haven't seen this since
nineteen eighties. It's nineteen thirty two. I'm going all the way.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Back two thousand and two. They were a couple of
good World Cup games for the US. Yeah, since at
least two thousand and two. This was the best night
for the years.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So I'll go back twenty twenty years right in how
well they played tonight, but as much you want to
talk about the players, right. And the update on Polisic
is he was rested. Ricio Pochettino, the head coach, said
after the game that a little bit of a calf issue.
This is something that had been bothering Polisic a little bit,
(02:15):
and we talked about it when the injury. When when
he was substituted for at halftime. It doesn't seem like
it's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
And Policic himself says, hoping it's nothing.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, I mean, i'd rather Policic say I'm fine. I'm fine,
But then again, you've heard people say I'm fine and
then I'm not playing. Jason Tatum, I'm fine, I'm playing. No,
I'm out for game seven. But Polistic says, you know,
there's a week between games. I have a long way
to go. They don't have a long travel They're playing
the next game in Seattle, with a week to go
until they play their next match.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
I feel okay. It felt more.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I would say preventatory than anything else. With him having
a three to nothing lead at halftime certainly helped make
that decision a little bit easier. He was the best
all around player on the pitch the entire first half.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
As much as great as we say about Balligan, he
was the best player on the pitch. He owned the
left side and the and and you didn't need to
see anything more outside of the fact that when he
came out of the game at halftime, the best eight
minutes that Paraguay had was the first eight minutes of
that second half. Where they could attack up that way
and you could say, wow, what's the big difference because
(03:23):
they didn't have any possession in the first half. I
think the United States had ninety nine point nine two
percentage a time of possession.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Well, it was the whole first half. It was two
shots for Buraguay.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Right, and you saw the I mean I could have
played keeper the first half. It had been great. Uh
and uh, but you saw the first eight minutes. Whoa,
they're getting chances. Now they had more possession of the first
eight minutes they had the entire first half. What was
the one change, the one big change there? Hey Polisic
was off the field, so you saw how important he was.
His his run down to set up the second goal,
(03:54):
his setting up the own goal, because of his pressure
in the in the Paraguay zone. Like he was everything
we have expected him to be at this point in
his career, because we've gotten to the point where, Hey,
Polisic is terrific and he is our future. Right, Polisic's fantastic. Now,
Polistic's been around, you know, almost a decade. Right, he's
(04:14):
twenty seven. This is his World Cup. This is when
he will be playing his best soccer with his youth
and experience that we ever expect him to play. This
is the time for him now, and he was everything
we hoped he'd be in the first half. This is
the best first half I've seen him play in a while.
I've said, you know, he has flashed for a long time.
He has played terrific, but this where you could tell
(04:36):
right away wherever he was. Yes, the attention was on
that part of the field, but it didn't matter. He
was pulling away from defenders, he was threading passes through
the middle of the field. This was an incredible first
half from Polisic, and that's why everybody's fingers crossed. But
it seems like he's gonna be okay again. If they
had to play, you know, in three four days, okay,
(04:58):
But they're playing in a week, so I think it's okay.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And I love what one of the commentators said pregame
is that he saw a look that Polisic had that
he doesn't always see with him, Like he knew he's
ready and he's not the only one that's ready on
this team. And my goodness, did they hit the ground running.
Keep in mind the context you mentioned Polisics career, which
has been good enough to be a regular on in
(05:22):
one of the Italian pro clubs and to have a
long career in Europe. To this point, even the American
stars of the past didn't necessarily all have long and
starting careers in Europe. This is a fairly new thing
for US, and yet for Christian Polisic and for US
soccer in general in the last decade, this is what
we did on the world stage. At the World Cup
(05:43):
in the past decade. We got a one nothing win
against Iran. That was the only victory in the last
ten years. Because remember twenty eighteen, we missed the World
Cup entirely. And now we get to co host the
World Cup and start this way, and all these NFL
stadiums are gonna be raucous and rowdy and full like
(06:04):
we saw tonight. I cannot wait for next Friday, although
keep in mind it's not in primetime. It's a day
game against Australia in a week.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, well, they'll change that. They have flexible scheduling, right,
didn't they do that for the World Cup. They didn't
do flexible scheduling flex We don't have that now. The
thing is the calf injury. We think Oh it's a
straight No, it's not. He got kicked in the calf,
which is actually, honestly, is a better injury than having
a strain right, like you think about because this.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Is something that because yeah, exactly, bruises.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And all of that and contusions can go away. As
he said, I got a bit of a kick in
the first half. Take a little bit of precaution today,
hoping I'll be fine the next few days. I've had
similar things before. I don't think it's anything at all.
So again with a week getting the kick, if this
was more, Hey, I strained and I pulled it, I
need I needed to stop. That's a little bit of
a question because you think because you look, it's so
easy to make that jump from it's a calf too,
(06:57):
it's an achilles, right, But getting.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Soft tissue, if it's hamstring or something, you could foreseeably
miss both of the other games in the in the
group play.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
But that's not that So adding to the to the
great night it was for the United States, great news
injury wise for Polisic two.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
And add on the schedule. By the way, it's not
just Australia at the Seattle Seahawks Stadium next Friday. In
a couple of weeks, there's a Thursday night game I
believe it is, yeah, about the same time, seven Pacific
that night back in the La Rams Stadium, excuse me,
Los Angeles Stadium. Turkey A will be the opponent to
finish out group play on the twenty fifth.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I believe that's where Matthew Stafford will ask for another
contract extension.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
And then they will call him at Turkey a very
nice thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Now the guy we need to talk a little bit
about more because he's sort of become not a forgotten guy.
But when Greg Burrhalter and Jurgen Klinsman were running Team
USA and the US men's national there was so much
attention spent on them, especially when when Klinsman was the coach.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Well you had a World Cup winner as your coach here, right,
But Team.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
USA was really it was Kleinsman was US Soccer for
a while and then it didn't work out and they
replaced him and burr Halter. It just never went smoothly.
There were a lot of bad decisions. There was there
was never anything that there was drama on the pitch,
There was drama off the pitch. It just it just
never worked out.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I have a Nick's analogy for you.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Oh boy, go ahead, the Knicks.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Did they not make the Eastern Conference finals a year ago?
Uh huh and still got rid of the coach.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Yeah, and they.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Did even better this time, Greg Burholter. None of us
liked him as the USA head coach. I just mentioned
the lone highlight of the last decade of the World
Cup for US was a one nothing win against Iran
That was the only win for US since twenty fourteen
in the World Cup. And yet they re upped with
(08:59):
Burholter and eventually said, you know, no, no, we can't
let this go closer to the year twenty twenty six
when we're co hosting. Let's make the coaching change. And
they got Potchettino, who's a tough interview to listen to
because of the English of the accent, But my goodness,
he has players to work with. I'm not saying our
roster is even close to what France can field or
(09:21):
anything crazy like that, but I am saying there are
players in this country to be able to feel a
competitive roster. And this is the guy who has coached
in Europe with clubs, and that's who they hired and
tonight's it's not a crowning achievement, but it's better than
any of us expected.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Now before we.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Get to Poach, So what you're telling me is that
Burholter is going to be walking around in the black
Nick sweatsuit with his arms folded like TIBs, just walking
around like that.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
That's who he is.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I don't think anybody can frown as often or as
consistently as tis, so Burlter is not quite the same
as that, but there is an analogy otherwise.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
But look, Poach comes in, and he comes in at
a low point for US soccer where we need some
kind of leadership. This is one of the most sought
after coaches in Europe who decided to leave Chelsea and
come in and embrace this challenge of hey, if I
can build Team USA into a winner. I mean, the
guy's a legend.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And the US women's coach currently, by the way, was
the Chelsea women's coach and she has come over and
kept the domination for the US women.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
That's all we had to do was say, ma Hayes, Poach, Yeah,
we're going to take both of you and and and
and good life.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
We'll give you burr Halter. We'll give you bur Halt.
That's fine. Stry about, don't you.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
People don't realize this US Soccer, unlike most soccer countries
and most soccer federations, is paying the men's and women's
coach pretty much the same contract. Yeah, that doesn't happen elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
But this is someone who came in and there were
a lot of there were a lot of expectations, and
there weren't a lot of expectations because it was, hey,
we need somebody to get this golden generation together. But
we have been burned so many times, especially the better
part of the last decade of underachieving and not making
the World Cup, and and and blowing our minds that
(11:02):
after the Land and Donovan World Cup and the goal
against Algeria in twenty eleven, this is where United States
Soccer is at. Where are we reaping the rewards of that?
And he comes in to a job where okay, yes,
expectations are high, but they're all so low because in
the end, I think, you know, we we're so a
gun shy of believing in the team USA and in
(11:23):
the US men's national team that say, yeah, okay, whatever
p coach does not going to be enough. But coming
into the World Cup, he selected his team and it's
a pretty fair breakdown of players who played in Europe
and players who played in the MLS and they didn't
have a lot of time together and how are we
going to get that time together? And he played friendlies
so close to the World Cup, and the question was
(11:44):
why is he playing so many friendlies? And I love
the fact that US Soccer allowed him to do his thing.
This is not this is not a guy. We got
Burholton to take the job. We couldn't find anybody's here's
a guy. No, this is the guy that wants to
come in. You know, he's got the pedigree and he
is from the beginning it's not a success unless we win.
I don't know how you measure success unless we win.
(12:05):
And and his message has been to the team that
we can win. And that's been the biggest thing mentally,
and he's even talked about it the last couple of days,
where you know, getting the guys to believe after a
near decade of we can't even get on the same page,
and we have the coach and is fighting with a
family like it's youth soccer of of you know, the
(12:27):
reign of family and is he picking him for the team?
Like the ridiculousness that we went through and he's got
to build everybody up from the ground up, and you know,
coming into the World Cup, I felt sort of a
confidence that I don't know that I had a reason
to feel confident for because I felt like, Okay, they
have the right guy.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Is he bought in?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Does he have one foot out the door going back
to Europe if this goes bad, Like there's like as
much as there's been the attention on the field for
the product, like all it needs is stuff to go bad,
you know, south quickly, and things can get really bad
in this World Cup. And you talk about a guy
who needed a big start more than anybody else. It's
not polistic, it's it's it's not Balligan, it wasn't anybody else.
(13:10):
It was Poachatino because if they didn't have a big start,
if they had tied Paraguay tonight or lost and all
of a sudden, advancing is nearly out the window and
now we have to come in second in the group
like you can imagine, right, which means, oh we if
we finished second, like it's a much tougher opponent in
the knockout round. So all of a sudden, he's the
(13:31):
guy that the knives are out on. And so the
pressure that they had tonight to play a near perfect
game against an opponent that is it's not great, but
they're not terrible. It's not like we had to we
played against the door mats and we were not play Yeah, no,
this was this was pretty good. And we're not talking
about the impact he has had because you see the
(13:53):
impact on this team and I saw tonight, right And
the biggest thing I saw was not so much about
the roster and not so much about the fact that, hey,
you know, a Balligan is a striker is unbelievable and
again twenty four years old, maybe becoming the guy who've
been searching for for twenty years. But the fact that
they attacked early on, they attacked throughout the first half.
(14:14):
They you know, they substituted out their two best players
who've been playing like Polistic had to come out. And
what happened. They attacked throughout the entire second half. I
did not see anybody get tired outside of that eight
minutes to start the second half. In a bit of
a brain cramp on the goal. They seize control again
and it was Paraguay that looked exhausted by the time
(14:34):
we got to the seventieth minute, the seventy fifth minute,
and all of a sudden, every play, I mean, Desk
is running free throughout the you know, it's like it's
like he was on the field by himself. Like every
time I looked up as well, there goes to Genio Desk.
He's got the ball going down, he's creating. And this
was an entire finish by the United States that I
have not seen us finish a game like this again
(14:56):
in twenty years, where I have seen us play well,
and I've seen us get up early and hold on
to games like whether it's the World Cup or the
Gold Cupper or another big tournament, but I have not
seen a team finish like this where they were not
the tire team. They attacked for ninety eight minutes. And
that's the coach and that's Pochatino what he's been able
to put on this team. And that's what I love
(15:17):
the most about this game is that they attacked for
ninety eight minutes. They didn't quit when they could have
just sat back at three to one. Nope, Gio rain
is in there and I want to score right like
PEPPI nearly scored too, but had had had a great
chance that that could have went in like they were,
this game could have been six, seven to one if
they were able to finish a couple of more chances.
But that doesn't matter because they put four on the
(15:40):
board and they attacked for ninety eight minutes. And that's
the influence of Pochattino.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
The most goals a US team had ever scored in
the World Cup, going back to the first World Cup
in nineteen thirty was three goals and this was three
now thing at the half for one final over Paraguay.
Coach Pochettino was hired less than two years ago to
take over the US team, and one of his very
first games maybe the first game, we got shut out
(16:07):
by Mexico. I mean, it couldn't have gone worse. You
didn't just lose, you got shut out against the one
team you can't lose against. And then the kinds of
results the Americans had for the next year and a
half were nothing that got you excited about, Oh, this
is great, We're gonna be hosting, co hosting the World
Cup in the summer of twenty twenty six. Too often
(16:28):
you saw these teams results and said, they're gonna embarrass
us that summer, aren't They Just don't embarrass us, please,
because when there was, for example, his first spring of
twenty twenty five, we had there are certain windows in
the FIFA schedule where you can pull your players off
their club teams and play these games for your national teams.
So our two games that spring, we played Panama and lost,
(16:51):
won nothing, and then we played Canada and got beat
by them also, and then the players returned to the
pro clubs like thanks for playing. And then later on
the US had a game against Switzerland, which granted is
a World Cup team. We lost four nothing to Switzerland.
We were barely beating Guatemala and Saudi Arabia. And then
this spring we played Belgium, a true World Clup World
(17:14):
Cup Cup team, and we lost five to two. This
is in March of this year, and we're wondering what
is going on. And then tonight, out of the blue,
absolute brilliance in the first half.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Tell you, man, nobody needed a bigger night more than Poach.
He got it, and there's no again there's no reason
to not feel incredibly optimistic that the United States can
accomplish a whole.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Hell of a lot in this World Cup.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Jason Smith Steve de Sager in for Mike Harmon coming
up next. One guy to expect a whole hell of
a lot from this World Cup, and I expect.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
I hold this guy to a really high standard.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Plus the controversy we didn't know we needed, but boy
we got it today. That's next, right here, Jason Smith,
Steve de Sager in for harmon Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio. And in addition to hearing
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Fox Sports Radio, we are excited to announce brand new
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Speaker 3 (18:21):
That's right, you can now watch The Odd Couple live
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Speaker 5 (18:27):
All you gotta do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube
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Speaker 2 (18:38):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
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Speaker 1 (18:50):
United States wins their opening game tonight four to one
over Paraguay.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Love more on this coming up in a few minutes.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Extra cockfights.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Uh okay, no, use, that's okay, no, no, I'm just okay.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
I'm moving on, moving on, moving on. Let's move on,
moving on.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Uh, but listen, we talk about pressure in the World
Cup and Marisio Pochatino, head coach Team USA. Uh, clearly
under a lot of it and needed a big night
tonight and got it from Team USA. The other guy
who I expect big things from and you expect to
be the big star of the World Cup, Well, there's
(19:32):
two guys. One guy talked about last night, and that's
Arling Holland, striker for Norway. Uh. He's the best striker
in the world. He has been for the last couple
of years. He's a huge star with Man City.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
And a huge player. He can dominate in the bus.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Oh my goodness, the guy six five.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Area doesn't matter if he's draped with two defenders.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
All right, he is unstoppable. Right he Norway is my
dark horse pick for the semi finals. Right, they can
have a run because again he's the best striker in
the world, and look, Norway is really high on their
team this year as well. We talk about it being
the generational team United States. Norway feels the same way.
But you know, Holland is known so well to soccer
(20:13):
fans throughout the world. But this is where the United
States audience and the rest of the world is going
to see him and go, oh wow, this guy is
absolutely unstoppable.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Norway is in France's group.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah, I get to win the group, but I could
see Norway getting in and a you get to the
knockout round and a guy like Holland who's a goal
of game guy. I mean really, I mean you watch him,
he's you can't not look at him because you say this,
this is a It's like watching when when Lebron came
into the league at eighteen and you said, how do
you come in with a body like that? You see
physically what he's at. That's kind of what Holland is like.
(20:44):
When you see him, we're like, oh my goodness, man,
like a smaller defender. I don't know how you stay
on him.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
I don't know how.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Like he creates talk about a guy that creates space,
doesn't even hit the ball clean to to hit something
strong and and beat the goaliet.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Are you seeing how short soccer players tend be. We
talked about Landon Donovan, who is easily one of the
greatest US players. He's quite five ft something. This guy's
six five to ten, I mean. And Norway, by the way,
does not have its opening match until Tuesday. That'll be
at the Patriots Stadium and it's against Iraq, who is
expected to finish last in that group.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
But that'll We're at the game, game five of the
Stanley Cup Final last night because they're training in North Carolina.
Holland was at the game last night. Yeah, he had
a couple other Guysnora at the game. It was pretty cool.
Uh so Holland the guy we talked about last night.
The other guy I have more pressure on, but I
have no doubt he is going to walk away being
the big breakout star of the World Cup is lotime.
(21:41):
Okay's Latan Ibrahimovichu was signed to be the new big
addition to Fox's World Cup coverage. If you know, you
know when's Laton was here with the Galaxy, Yep, there
was there was never a dull moment. He could say
something incredibly witty and fun and cocky and arrogant and hilarious.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
And backing up as a player by the way, Yes.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
And he could do it all the time, right, he
was that kind of guy. But after the Galaxy he left,
he went back to Europe, finished his career. But now
he's back, and I can't wait to see what he's
going to do over the course of the next month. Now, tonight,
the focus was on the game with the United States, right,
and Lawton certainly had some good things.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Hey, he told America believe believe, you can believe.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
Now.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
It's a great moment there.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
And he's standing next to the guy who was the
focus of the Fox pre and post game. By the way,
Alexi Lawless, he's being overshadowed by this new hire.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It's Lalas and theory on ree and and it's you know,
it's a really big deal. And so now they have
this this new booth, it's like, whoa, well, what are
they going to say? And it's latton Is. I mean,
he's so incredibly entertaining. Here's a bit from just from
tonight him and Alexi Lawless talking about Erling Holland and
what they expect to see from him in the World
(22:56):
Cup and just listen to the back and forth between
the two of them and let us't know what Laton
has to say.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
But I'm telling you right now, if this man has
a big World Cup, boom right to the top, even
over this guy.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
I love you.
Speaker 7 (23:08):
I love you, see, but I will take Holland over
you if he has. If he has a big World
Cup in terms of legendary status, that's a big statement.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
I'm not sure about that. Yeah, he needs to do
much more to reach the freak of nature.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
Really, what does he have to do if he starts
in this World Cup? Give it everything that he's already.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
He does goals.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
He's a killer in the bugs, but I saw myself
more around. I like to play with the ball.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
You think he's one dimensional.
Speaker 6 (23:36):
Yes, he's a killer in the bugs, but that's enough.
He's intelligent, he does what he needs to do. He
doesn't do more than he's able to do. He doesn't
waste energy on that. I saw an interview with him.
He said, my dream is to touch two balls, score
two goals. I would say different, my dream is to
touch two balls, score three goals.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
And just getting warmed up's lot time by the way
is Loton is the same height and weight that we
were just talking about, so unusual for soccer. And he's right,
he wasn't just a stand in the penalty of the
area guy at six five ten.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
No, No, it's just the fact that it's lots on
and you know that they're egging him on a little
bit by saying because they know.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
It's going to say because there's more in the tank.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I would take him over you and just right away
when's lot time goes, I don't know about that, I
take me. He's gonna be the breakout star of the
World Cup where every night where here in the United States. Look,
there's gonna be the United States game nights and then
there's gonna be the other nights. There's gonna be big
games that everybody's paying attention to. And Mexico plays, you know,
(24:44):
we we had a couple of big matchups and uh
in group. You know, Norway playing France will be a
big one obviously, but the general entertainment that slowly because
Latton is going to be responsible for like it's gonna
be every day You're gonna check blogs the next day
going what did Laton say last night? What did he
say in the coverage last night, here's a moment that's
(25:06):
Laton had to say, like, this is a guy that
can be a legendary commentator for the next twenty years
because he'll be seventy five years old. And what what
what what do you think Earling Holland? Now, uh, you know,
nine hundred and fifty career goals, he is still not
as good as Lato. He is still not this good.
Like the the the cockiness, the arrogance, but the charisma
(25:28):
that he has. And you know that's Laton's doing it
with a wink to the audience as well. But also
I'm doing it with a wink. But you also know
that I am the best player in the world. I
was the best player in the world when I played
like he's so he just has everything you want in
an entertainer, right. And then when when when he first
came to the United States, when it came to the
United States and he was playing for the uh playing
(25:49):
for the Galaxy, was right after Lebron had signed with
the Lakers, and and you know, they asked him what
do you think and he says, oh, now Los Angeles
has a god and a king, right, like you know
the King James, how they have a god and a
kid like this is who he was and he was
so he was so much fun to listen to and
hear him talk, and he would talk about like they
would ask him crazy questions press conference, like, hey, he's
(26:10):
a lot of time. What do you think about Area
fifty one? I know one thing about Area fifty one?
What there's no one there likes lotime? Right Like I'm like,
what kind of answer is that? But you know, I
mean the back and forth he would have with reporters,
like people are gonna see it. Like like I said,
people are gonna see Arling Holland on a new level
here across the globe because it's the World Cup and
it's the first time he's had a chance to be
(26:31):
this dominant being twenty five years old, best striker on
the planet. Like the same thing. Everybody's gonna get a
sense of his slat time because Big Fox every day
all the matches. Alexi Lawless knows I can go back
and forth with him and talk about things. I know
how to push buttons. Same thing with Henry. I mean,
this is gonna be something where every night he's almost
gonna be like Charles Barkley. You know, when you're watch it,
(26:52):
what does Charles Barkley have to say about the NBA Finals.
In fact, When's Lawton was asked last night on the
eve of the United States game, is hey, you know,
people say you could be the Charles Barkley of the
World Cup. And he goes, no, I bet that I
have won. Charles has not one. I have won and
Barkley has never won. Right like this, this is what
I say on the back of the world.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Do you remember the one game when he was with
the LA Galaxy. He had played in pretty much every
famous club Europe had and then came over to Major
League Soccer before twenty twenty, There was a night on
this show where they put on national TV the Galaxy
game against LAFC and I think the Laton's team. The
(27:32):
Galaxy fell behind one nothing and he scored. They fell
behind two to one and he scored again. They fell
behind three to two, and he scored again. It was
that type of thing where he had probably about fifty
games for the Galaxy and scored about fifty goals. Well,
he was over here, he had an amazing career already
and then at an advanced age just topped it once.
(27:53):
He came over here a long career, deserves to speak
and yes he's completely and totally stuck up, but he's
exactly the right tire for Fox and to slot him
next to Alexei Lawless, who some people say, you know,
he kind of sucks the air out of the room
or that's an extreme statement, believe it or not, it
almost balances that. And then you throw Henri with all
(28:16):
of his not only playing in England in Premier League,
but his championship with France. It's it's a nice group
and of course you have a superb host in Rebecca Love.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
What watching's lots on is kind of gonna be like
the real life Roy Kent. Like when Roy Kent was
an analyst in Ted Lasso and they said, Roy, what's
being said in that locker room? How the blank should
I know?
Speaker 4 (28:37):
I'm not in that?
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Well, Roy, we don't want to curse on television, you know,
like it's gonna be. He's gonna be a real life
Roy Kent on television. That's what he's gonna be.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
So they needed delay immediately. It's what you're saying, Yeah,
have your finger on that dumb button.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
You never know what he's gonna say. Have the finger
on that button ever? Ready?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
H So I get expecting huge, huge things. There's lot
on as the World Cup just getting started again, only
a couple of matches so far, the the host nations
getting to open up first and in most of the
time opening up in matches they can win. Sorry Canada,
but get ready for his lat On Holland your big
breakout stars of the World Cup. Speaking of breakout stars,
(29:15):
Boba Schett had two home runs to night. Steve the
Seger has more on that. With what's trending right now
in the one sports.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
We might get to that. There was a tiny little
thing called the US World Cup opener tonight in Los
Ange in front of seventy thousand Raucus fans the Americans,
to say the least, gave them something to cheer for.
The first American goal came in the seventh minutes against
Paraguash now draws.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
The other team splits another team Politic in the box.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
Less than seven minute.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Time game on Fox TV, of course. Now Christian Polisic
was subbed out at halftime after being kicked in the calf,
but the Americans were up three nothing at the time
for to one over Paraguay the final. The US had
sixteen shots in the game, thirteen of them came from
inside the penalty area. The offense had its foot on
the gas the entire first half and then some afterwards.
(30:13):
Just an unbelievably impressive showing their best World Cup effort
in over twenty years at least. Fau Bellagoon with two
goals in the first half for the Americans, one in
the thirty first minute, one at the end of the
first half. Next up for the Americans. Remember every team
is guaranteed three games in a World Cup. That is
you against the other three teams in your group always.
(30:35):
The US plays next Friday in Seattle against Australia that
will be a day game, and then Turkey a in
a couple weeks back in La against the Americans. If
you want to scout the opposition. By the way, guess what,
there's not only the three games on Fox TV tomorrow,
and that includes Brazil against what was a surprisingly good
(30:55):
Morocco team at the last World Cup. That'll be in
New Jersey Saturday, six pm Eastern on Fox TV. There's
a game late tomorrow night midnight Eastern on FS one
and it's Australia against Turkey. The next two US opponents
play each other. Late Saturday night, Canada opened its World
Cup with a game in Toronto, tying Bosnia Herzegovina one
(31:17):
to one with a goal in the seventy eighth minute.
Bosnia was whistled for double the fouls today twenty to ten.
Canada had never even tied a game in the World Cup.
It had been zero to six all time with only
one total goal until today. The excitement of the FIFA
World Cup is now streaming live on Fox one, the
official English streaming platform, to catch every unforgettable moment. Fox
(31:39):
one brings the action straight to your screen so you
never miss a goal. Download Fox one and experience the
FIFA World Cup live. What a tournament we have already underway.
And by the way, as we look toward games that
some of us really really want to see, can I
just mention that there is a place off the coast
of Africa with population of only five hundred thousand in
(32:02):
the whole country that qualified for this World Cup. Cape
Verde plays number one rank Spain in its opener in
the first of the four games on Monday on Fox TV,
so fallis.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
I bet Cape Verde and he's getting eleven goals.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Sometimes there are things that are train wrecks in sports
that you just can't look away from. I hope it's
not five nothing, but I am unbelievably curious about that
game to start the Monday schedule. Yes, in Major League Baseball,
the Mets did win over Atlanta seven to five the
final bo Bashett two homers, six RBIs beat a Braves
team that still has the best record in the Majors.
(32:40):
But it's forty five and twenty four now you have.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Mets are now fourteen games out of first place.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Spencer Strider, the losing Brave starter. He left with a
sore arm. Toronto ended the Yankees four game winning streak
eight to five. Yankees were in a tie virtual tie
for first in the Al East with the Rays. To
open up the day, White Sox beat the Dodgers eight
to two. The White Sox at home have won nineteen
of twenty two. The lost to LA's Rokie Sasaki. Shoe
(33:08):
Otani was out with knee inflammation. The Dodger offense went
four for thirty. Nothing was better in baseball tonight than
Milwaukee starter Jacob Mazerowski a complete game one hitter to
beat the Phillies six nothing. He struck out fifteen. Houston
won ten to eight at Kansas City. Jordan Alvarez in
the first inning had two home runs six RBIs, including
(33:29):
a grand slam. Houston led nine to nothing in the
top of the first. Minnesota is a winner with two
solo homers. Bottom of the eighth, nine to eight over
Saint Louis. Angels had beaten Tampa Bay four to three
the two late games. Cubs still up five to nothing
at the Giants bottom of the ninth. The A's playing
not in West Sacramento, but at their Triple A stadium
this week, northwest of Las Vegas. A's are now leading
(33:51):
five to four over the Rockies bottom of the eighth.
And by the way, the College World Series started today
wins for West Virginia and North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Back to you, Thank you, Steve O, Jason Smith, Steve
de Sager in for Mike Carmon. Coming up next, we
got more from Team USA's first day in the World Cup,
including a controversy that I can't believe has gotten this big.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
It's next right here, this is Fox Sports Radio Defense.
Speaker 6 (34:16):
We're demanding something, and I gave them to let them.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
App Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Special
delivery Steve de Sager in for Mike Harmon and in
the UH in the Pantheon of I can't believe this
has become as big a controversy.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
It has become.
Speaker 8 (34:49):
UH.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
This from the World Cup today and it involves the
United States, but it's not game oriented.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
With the win over Paraguay.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Okay, so earlier today, now you do, all the host
nations get to play the first few games, and Canada
played earlier today and they tied one to one against
Bosnia Herdsovinia and Jesse Marsh is the head coach of Canada,
and big soccer fans know. Okay, there's been a big
history with Jesse Marsh, the head coach of Canada and
(35:20):
the United States. He is a United States coach who
was very upset that he got passed over for the
national job a few years ago. Yeah, he had coached
on staff with US Soccer previously and was very upset
that he wasn't given the job in twenty twenty three
after Greg Berhalter's contract expired after the twenty twenty two
(35:43):
World Time.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
He was a Bob Bradley assistant many years ago.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yes, he has talked about his frustrations with the United
States and US Soccer said, I wasn't treated very well.
He played for the United States for a while and
he has since gone to Canada and there's been a
couple of games where things have gotten a little chippy
cause of this. But Marsh today, I really don't understand
what he's trying to do here. And Clint Dempsey, former
(36:10):
USMNT legend commentator now for Fox, has jumped back and
clapped back at Jesse Marsh, who said that ahead of
the United States game tonight that in the United States
sometimes we had to beg players to sing the national anthem.
This is now, This is going back like fifteen years
and it's like whoa, whoa. But this wasn't We couldn't
(36:32):
get guys to stand for the national anthem, We couldn't
get guys to respect the flag. This is not something
like in the last ten twelve years where it's been
we're kneeling for the flag.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
We're not.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
No, this is going back like in twenty eleven, like
before any of this stuff came up, we had to
beg players to sing the national anthem. And it's like, okay,
what does that really mean? And he said, quote, these guys,
the Canadian players sing the national anthem, belt it out
at the top of their lungs because they want to
show the country how proud they are to be here,
to be Canadians and to represent what Canada is. So
(37:04):
I guess Steve he wants to win the national anthem off,
like like, oh, because my guys are singing. My guys
are singing it, so they're better for their country. They're
more Canadian than Americans, who we've seen plenty of people
become emotional or during the national anthem, they sit and
they think about things, they think about the game.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
They think.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
You know, just because you're not singing it doesn't mean
you're ignoring it yet, Jesse Mark, I think wants to
have a national anthem.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Coop Sirianni comes to mind.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Sure, yeah, I want to go. I want to have
a national anthem off. We're better in Canada at the
national anthem in the United States.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
This is the verbal equivalent of the national anthem offs
that we've seen in baseball, where a couple of guys
are still standing at attention in front of the dugout
and the game's ready to start, and they don't want
to be the They want to be the last one
to leave, so like, I can stay out here longer
than you two of us. Two of those guys got
kicked out for not leaving and getting in the dugout
(37:57):
so they could start the game by a week ago.
But when they brought it up to Dempsey. I saw
this on one of the pregame shows today. His first
come was he really said.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
That, Yeah, yeah, I mean this is this is so
what's the word stupid?
Speaker 4 (38:10):
This is so slick? What is Jesse Morris?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
You sound like the bitter ex who like, I'm just
gonna tell you how I have it better now and
I bought my new boyfriend or girlfriend is better now
than your than it was back there. Like, really, you
want to complain about the guys singing not disrespecting the flag.
This is not about disrespecting the flag. This is about
just singing the national anthem. Here's Clinton Dempsey and his
(38:33):
response from earlier.
Speaker 9 (38:34):
Today represented the United States not only as a player,
but as an assistant coach as well. Yesterday, he had
a comment that caught our attention. He said that when
he was an assistant with US under Bob Bradley Clinton,
he had to beg the players to sing the national anthem.
Speaker 8 (38:52):
He really said that. He said that, Man, I can't
take this guy too seriously. I mean, it was an
honor for me growing up and representing my country, and
when the national anthem happened, I would I wasn't someone
who normally would sing. I put my hand over my
heart and I'd pray to the good man upstairs. I'm
someone who's bled for this country. I broke my nose
playing for this country. I've come back from two heart
procedures and played for this country. So I'm not gonna
(39:14):
take advice from someone who switched to the other side
and singing another country's national anthem. As my boy T
T would say.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Stay in your own lane.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
It looks like he's in a.
Speaker 8 (39:23):
Dang mopad, So where about your own teams?
Speaker 4 (39:25):
WHOA I like it.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I'm not gonna take advice guy who's switching. He's going
and he went to another team now because they wouldn't
give him the job of the United States. Like Mars
just sounds bitter. Like if you want to talk about
things that happened with the United States and why you
got passed over, I get it. You want to talk
about the culture within the United States and everything, I'd.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Like to hear that part. But yeah, the guy was
just a pest anyway, going back to his playing days.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
I mean, just you want to go back and say
just because the guys weren't singing the national anthem, like
what like, that's where you're going for this, Like that's
what you want to break. Because again, you see players
and they're Some players are emotional and they mouth the words.
Some people sing, some people don't.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Some people cry yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Some people bow their heads. Some people use the national
anthem to get ready for the game. There's all sorts
of things. Right again, no one was disrespecting anything. And
I want to sit here and say, ah, we're better
at singing the national anthem than you are. Okay, great,
you know what we're better at than you playing soccer?
How about that? How about that we're better at playing soccer.
You can have the national anthem, we'll take soccer. That's okay,
(40:32):
we'll take hockey and now we'll take soccer. So we'll
take everything now, Silver medalist country, Canada, we'll take everything
from you now.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
So what Marsha's point actually was, as we break it down,
is I was an assistant coach and fifteen years ago.
I think what I experienced in my brief time with
the US goes toward what they are now. And compare
that to what I'm seeing from Canada, I'm not sure
about that.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Again, Clint, do worry about yourself. Worry about your teeth,
you tied, you may not make it out of your
knockout round, you worry about yourself. Coming up next, we
get back into the biggest story of the night. This
is Fox Sports Radio Balligan Yoe
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello, Welcome in Side hour three The Jason Smith Show
with special delivery Steve de Seger in for Mike Harmon
live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. Don't forget check
out our brand new YouTube channel. Go to YouTube dot
com and search Jason Smith's Show again just search Jason
Smith Show. We put new videos up all the time.
Let us know what you think, agree, disagree again. We
(00:54):
love putting this content out for you every single night.
We got some big team i say content going up
there in a little bit after their big win tonight
over Powerguay for to one and look there's a lot
of plaudits going on. We'll have time to get into
Polisic and battle again again and everything we saw tonight
that was so good. Now the update we've gotten from
(01:16):
Team USA about Christian Polisic, who played. Probably he and
Baligan were the two best players in the first half
easily for the United.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
States, and not the only good players.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, no, not that they were the best of the
good players that I mean, because look, it was as
dominant a half, as good a game the United States
has played. I'll go back twenty some odd years, right,
and you see other people that are older than I
am watching soccer longer, going, I haven't seen this since
nineteen eighties. It's nineteen thirty two. I'm going all the way.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Back two thousand and two. They were a couple of
good World Cup games for the US. Yeah, since at
least two thousand and two. This was the best night
for the years.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So I'll go back twenty twenty years right in how
well they played tonight, but as much you want to
talk about the players, right. And the update on Polisic
is he was rested. Ricio Pochettino, the head coach, said
after the game that a little bit of a calf issue.
This is something that had been bothering Polisic a little bit,
(02:15):
and we talked about it when the injury. When when
he was substituted for at halftime. It doesn't seem like
it's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
And Policic himself says, hoping it's nothing.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, I mean, i'd rather Policic say I'm fine. I'm fine,
But then again, you've heard people say I'm fine and
then I'm not playing. Jason Tatum, I'm fine, I'm playing. No,
I'm out for game seven. But Polistic says, you know,
there's a week between games. I have a long way
to go. They don't have a long travel They're playing
the next game in Seattle, with a week to go
until they play their next match.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
I feel okay. It felt more.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I would say preventatory than anything else. With him having
a three to nothing lead at halftime certainly helped make
that decision a little bit easier. He was the best
all around player on the pitch the entire first half.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
As much as great as we say about Balligan, he
was the best player on the pitch. He owned the
left side and the and and you didn't need to
see anything more outside of the fact that when he
came out of the game at halftime, the best eight
minutes that Paraguay had was the first eight minutes of
that second half. Where they could attack up that way
and you could say, wow, what's the big difference because
(03:23):
they didn't have any possession in the first half. I
think the United States had ninety nine point nine two
percentage a time of possession.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Well, it was the whole first half. It was two
shots for Buraguay.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Right, and you saw the I mean I could have
played keeper the first half. It had been great. Uh
and uh, but you saw the first eight minutes. Whoa,
they're getting chances. Now they had more possession of the first
eight minutes they had the entire first half. What was
the one change, the one big change there? Hey Polisic
was off the field, so you saw how important he was.
His his run down to set up the second goal,
(03:54):
his setting up the own goal, because of his pressure
in the in the Paraguay zone. Like he was everything
we have expected him to be at this point in
his career, because we've gotten to the point where, Hey,
Polisic is terrific and he is our future. Right, Polisic's fantastic. Now,
Polistic's been around, you know, almost a decade. Right, he's
(04:14):
twenty seven. This is his World Cup. This is when
he will be playing his best soccer with his youth
and experience that we ever expect him to play. This
is the time for him now, and he was everything
we hoped he'd be in the first half. This is
the best first half I've seen him play in a while.
I've said, you know, he has flashed for a long time.
He has played terrific, but this where you could tell
(04:36):
right away wherever he was. Yes, the attention was on
that part of the field, but it didn't matter. He
was pulling away from defenders, he was threading passes through
the middle of the field. This was an incredible first
half from Polisic, and that's why everybody's fingers crossed. But
it seems like he's gonna be okay again. If they
had to play, you know, in three four days, okay,
(04:58):
But they're playing in a week, so I think it's okay.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And I love what one of the commentators said pregame
is that he saw a look that Polisic had that
he doesn't always see with him, Like he knew he's
ready and he's not the only one that's ready on
this team. And my goodness, did they hit the ground running.
Keep in mind the context you mentioned Polisics career, which
has been good enough to be a regular on in
(05:22):
one of the Italian pro clubs and to have a
long career in Europe. To this point, even the American
stars of the past didn't necessarily all have long and
starting careers in Europe. This is a fairly new thing
for US, and yet for Christian Polisic and for US
soccer in general in the last decade, this is what
we did on the world stage. At the World Cup
(05:43):
in the past decade. We got a one nothing win
against Iran. That was the only victory in the last
ten years. Because remember twenty eighteen, we missed the World
Cup entirely. And now we get to co host the
World Cup and start this way, and all these NFL
stadiums are gonna be raucous and rowdy and full like
(06:04):
we saw tonight. I cannot wait for next Friday, although
keep in mind it's not in primetime. It's a day
game against Australia in a week.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, well, they'll change that. They have flexible scheduling, right,
didn't they do that for the World Cup. They didn't
do flexible scheduling flex We don't have that now. The
thing is the calf injury. We think Oh it's a
straight No, it's not. He got kicked in the calf,
which is actually, honestly, is a better injury than having
a strain right, like you think about because this.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Is something that because yeah, exactly, bruises.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And all of that and contusions can go away. As
he said, I got a bit of a kick in
the first half. Take a little bit of precaution today,
hoping I'll be fine the next few days. I've had
similar things before. I don't think it's anything at all.
So again with a week getting the kick, if this
was more, Hey, I strained and I pulled it, I
need I needed to stop. That's a little bit of
a question because you think because you look, it's so
easy to make that jump from it's a calf too,
(06:57):
it's an achilles, right, But getting.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Soft tissue, if it's hamstring or something, you could foreseeably
miss both of the other games in the in the
group play.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
But that's not that So adding to the to the
great night it was for the United States, great news
injury wise for Polisic two.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
And add on the schedule. By the way, it's not
just Australia at the Seattle Seahawks Stadium next Friday. In
a couple of weeks, there's a Thursday night game I
believe it is, yeah, about the same time, seven Pacific
that night back in the La Rams Stadium, excuse me,
Los Angeles Stadium. Turkey A will be the opponent to
finish out group play on the twenty fifth.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I believe that's where Matthew Stafford will ask for another
contract extension.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
And then they will call him at Turkey a very
nice thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Now the guy we need to talk a little bit
about more because he's sort of become not a forgotten guy.
But when Greg Burrhalter and Jurgen Klinsman were running Team
USA and the US men's national there was so much
attention spent on them, especially when when Klinsman was the coach.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Well you had a World Cup winner as your coach here, right,
But Team.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
USA was really it was Kleinsman was US Soccer for
a while and then it didn't work out and they
replaced him and burr Halter. It just never went smoothly.
There were a lot of bad decisions. There was there
was never anything that there was drama on the pitch,
There was drama off the pitch. It just it just
never worked out.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I have a Nick's analogy for you.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Oh boy, go ahead, the Knicks.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Did they not make the Eastern Conference finals a year ago?
Uh huh and still got rid of the coach.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Yeah, and they.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Did even better this time, Greg Burholter. None of us
liked him as the USA head coach. I just mentioned
the lone highlight of the last decade of the World
Cup for US was a one nothing win against Iran
That was the only win for US since twenty fourteen
in the World Cup. And yet they re upped with
(08:59):
Burholter and eventually said, you know, no, no, we can't
let this go closer to the year twenty twenty six
when we're co hosting. Let's make the coaching change. And
they got Potchettino, who's a tough interview to listen to
because of the English of the accent, But my goodness,
he has players to work with. I'm not saying our
roster is even close to what France can field or
(09:21):
anything crazy like that, but I am saying there are
players in this country to be able to feel a
competitive roster. And this is the guy who has coached
in Europe with clubs, and that's who they hired and
tonight's it's not a crowning achievement, but it's better than
any of us expected.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Now before we.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Get to Poach, So what you're telling me is that
Burholter is going to be walking around in the black
Nick sweatsuit with his arms folded like TIBs, just walking
around like that.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
That's who he is.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I don't think anybody can frown as often or as
consistently as tis, so Burlter is not quite the same
as that, but there is an analogy otherwise.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
But look, Poach comes in, and he comes in at
a low point for US soccer where we need some
kind of leadership. This is one of the most sought
after coaches in Europe who decided to leave Chelsea and
come in and embrace this challenge of hey, if I
can build Team USA into a winner. I mean, the
guy's a legend.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And the US women's coach currently, by the way, was
the Chelsea women's coach and she has come over and
kept the domination for the US women.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
That's all we had to do was say, ma Hayes, Poach, Yeah,
we're going to take both of you and and and
and good life.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
We'll give you burr Halter. We'll give you bur Halt.
That's fine. Stry about, don't you.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
People don't realize this US Soccer, unlike most soccer countries
and most soccer federations, is paying the men's and women's
coach pretty much the same contract. Yeah, that doesn't happen elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
But this is someone who came in and there were
a lot of there were a lot of expectations, and
there weren't a lot of expectations because it was, hey,
we need somebody to get this golden generation together. But
we have been burned so many times, especially the better
part of the last decade of underachieving and not making
the World Cup, and and and blowing our minds that
(11:02):
after the Land and Donovan World Cup and the goal
against Algeria in twenty eleven, this is where United States
Soccer is at. Where are we reaping the rewards of that?
And he comes in to a job where okay, yes,
expectations are high, but they're all so low because in
the end, I think, you know, we we're so a
gun shy of believing in the team USA and in
(11:23):
the US men's national team that say, yeah, okay, whatever
p coach does not going to be enough. But coming
into the World Cup, he selected his team and it's
a pretty fair breakdown of players who played in Europe
and players who played in the MLS and they didn't
have a lot of time together and how are we
going to get that time together? And he played friendlies
so close to the World Cup, and the question was
(11:44):
why is he playing so many friendlies? And I love
the fact that US Soccer allowed him to do his thing.
This is not this is not a guy. We got
Burholton to take the job. We couldn't find anybody's here's
a guy. No, this is the guy that wants to
come in. You know, he's got the pedigree and he
is from the beginning it's not a success unless we win.
I don't know how you measure success unless we win.
(12:05):
And and his message has been to the team that
we can win. And that's been the biggest thing mentally,
and he's even talked about it the last couple of days,
where you know, getting the guys to believe after a
near decade of we can't even get on the same page,
and we have the coach and is fighting with a
family like it's youth soccer of of you know, the
(12:27):
reign of family and is he picking him for the team?
Like the ridiculousness that we went through and he's got
to build everybody up from the ground up, and you know,
coming into the World Cup, I felt sort of a
confidence that I don't know that I had a reason
to feel confident for because I felt like, Okay, they
have the right guy.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Is he bought in?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Does he have one foot out the door going back
to Europe if this goes bad, Like there's like as
much as there's been the attention on the field for
the product, like all it needs is stuff to go bad,
you know, south quickly, and things can get really bad
in this World Cup. And you talk about a guy
who needed a big start more than anybody else. It's
not polistic, it's it's it's not Balligan, it wasn't anybody else.
(13:10):
It was Poachatino because if they didn't have a big start,
if they had tied Paraguay tonight or lost and all
of a sudden, advancing is nearly out the window and
now we have to come in second in the group
like you can imagine, right, which means, oh we if
we finished second, like it's a much tougher opponent in
the knockout round. So all of a sudden, he's the
(13:31):
guy that the knives are out on. And so the
pressure that they had tonight to play a near perfect
game against an opponent that is it's not great, but
they're not terrible. It's not like we had to we
played against the door mats and we were not play Yeah, no,
this was this was pretty good. And we're not talking
about the impact he has had because you see the
(13:53):
impact on this team and I saw tonight, right And
the biggest thing I saw was not so much about
the roster and not so much about the fact that, hey,
you know, a Balligan is a striker is unbelievable and
again twenty four years old, maybe becoming the guy who've
been searching for for twenty years. But the fact that
they attacked early on, they attacked throughout the first half.
(14:14):
They you know, they substituted out their two best players
who've been playing like Polistic had to come out. And
what happened. They attacked throughout the entire second half. I
did not see anybody get tired outside of that eight
minutes to start the second half. In a bit of
a brain cramp on the goal. They seize control again
and it was Paraguay that looked exhausted by the time
(14:34):
we got to the seventieth minute, the seventy fifth minute,
and all of a sudden, every play, I mean, Desk
is running free throughout the you know, it's like it's
like he was on the field by himself. Like every
time I looked up as well, there goes to Genio Desk.
He's got the ball going down, he's creating. And this
was an entire finish by the United States that I
have not seen us finish a game like this again
(14:56):
in twenty years, where I have seen us play well,
and I've seen us get up early and hold on
to games like whether it's the World Cup or the
Gold Cupper or another big tournament, but I have not
seen a team finish like this where they were not
the tire team. They attacked for ninety eight minutes. And
that's the coach and that's Pochatino what he's been able
to put on this team. And that's what I love
(15:17):
the most about this game is that they attacked for
ninety eight minutes. They didn't quit when they could have
just sat back at three to one. Nope, Gio rain
is in there and I want to score right like
PEPPI nearly scored too, but had had had a great
chance that that could have went in like they were,
this game could have been six, seven to one if
they were able to finish a couple of more chances.
But that doesn't matter because they put four on the
(15:40):
board and they attacked for ninety eight minutes. And that's
the influence of Pochattino.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
The most goals a US team had ever scored in
the World Cup, going back to the first World Cup
in nineteen thirty was three goals and this was three
now thing at the half for one final over Paraguay.
Coach Pochettino was hired less than two years ago to
take over the US team, and one of his very
first games maybe the first game, we got shut out
(16:07):
by Mexico. I mean, it couldn't have gone worse. You
didn't just lose, you got shut out against the one
team you can't lose against. And then the kinds of
results the Americans had for the next year and a
half were nothing that got you excited about, Oh, this
is great, We're gonna be hosting, co hosting the World
Cup in the summer of twenty twenty six. Too often
(16:28):
you saw these teams results and said, they're gonna embarrass
us that summer, aren't They Just don't embarrass us, please,
because when there was, for example, his first spring of
twenty twenty five, we had there are certain windows in
the FIFA schedule where you can pull your players off
their club teams and play these games for your national teams.
So our two games that spring, we played Panama and lost,
(16:51):
won nothing, and then we played Canada and got beat
by them also, and then the players returned to the
pro clubs like thanks for playing. And then later on
the US had a game against Switzerland, which granted is
a World Cup team. We lost four nothing to Switzerland.
We were barely beating Guatemala and Saudi Arabia. And then
this spring we played Belgium, a true World Clup World
(17:14):
Cup Cup team, and we lost five to two. This
is in March of this year, and we're wondering what
is going on. And then tonight, out of the blue,
absolute brilliance in the first half.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Tell you, man, nobody needed a bigger night more than Poach.
He got it, and there's no again there's no reason
to not feel incredibly optimistic that the United States can
accomplish a whole.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Hell of a lot in this World Cup.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Jason Smith Steve de Sager in for Mike Harmon coming
up next. One guy to expect a whole hell of
a lot from this World Cup, and I expect.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
I hold this guy to a really high standard.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Plus the controversy we didn't know we needed, but boy
we got it today. That's next, right here, Jason Smith,
Steve de Sager in for harmon Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio. And in addition to hearing
us live weeknights from seven to ten pm Eastern on
Fox Sports Radio, we are excited to announce brand new
YouTube channel for the show.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
That's right, you can now watch The Odd Couple live
on YouTube every day.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
All you gotta do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube
again YouTube, Just search Odd Couple FSR. Check us out
on YouTube and subscribe.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
United States wins their opening game tonight four to one
over Paraguay.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Love more on this coming up in a few minutes.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Extra cockfights.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Uh okay, no, use, that's okay, no, no, I'm just okay.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
I'm moving on, moving on, moving on. Let's move on,
moving on.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Uh, but listen, we talk about pressure in the World
Cup and Marisio Pochatino, head coach Team USA. Uh, clearly
under a lot of it and needed a big night
tonight and got it from Team USA. The other guy
who I expect big things from and you expect to
be the big star of the World Cup, Well, there's
(19:32):
two guys. One guy talked about last night, and that's
Arling Holland, striker for Norway. Uh. He's the best striker
in the world. He has been for the last couple
of years. He's a huge star with Man City.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
And a huge player. He can dominate in the bus.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Oh my goodness, the guy six five.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Area doesn't matter if he's draped with two defenders.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
All right, he is unstoppable. Right he Norway is my
dark horse pick for the semi finals. Right, they can
have a run because again he's the best striker in
the world, and look, Norway is really high on their
team this year as well. We talk about it being
the generational team United States. Norway feels the same way.
But you know, Holland is known so well to soccer
(20:13):
fans throughout the world. But this is where the United
States audience and the rest of the world is going
to see him and go, oh wow, this guy is
absolutely unstoppable.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Norway is in France's group.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah, I get to win the group, but I could
see Norway getting in and a you get to the
knockout round and a guy like Holland who's a goal
of game guy. I mean really, I mean you watch him,
he's you can't not look at him because you say this,
this is a It's like watching when when Lebron came
into the league at eighteen and you said, how do
you come in with a body like that? You see
physically what he's at. That's kind of what Holland is like.
(20:44):
When you see him, we're like, oh my goodness, man,
like a smaller defender. I don't know how you stay
on him.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
I don't know how.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Like he creates talk about a guy that creates space,
doesn't even hit the ball clean to to hit something
strong and and beat the goaliet.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Are you seeing how short soccer players tend be. We
talked about Landon Donovan, who is easily one of the
greatest US players. He's quite five ft something. This guy's
six five to ten, I mean. And Norway, by the way,
does not have its opening match until Tuesday. That'll be
at the Patriots Stadium and it's against Iraq, who is
expected to finish last in that group.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
But that'll We're at the game, game five of the
Stanley Cup Final last night because they're training in North Carolina.
Holland was at the game last night. Yeah, he had
a couple other Guysnora at the game. It was pretty cool.
Uh so Holland the guy we talked about last night.
The other guy I have more pressure on, but I
have no doubt he is going to walk away being
the big breakout star of the World Cup is lotime.
(21:41):
Okay's Latan Ibrahimovichu was signed to be the new big
addition to Fox's World Cup coverage. If you know, you
know when's Laton was here with the Galaxy, Yep, there
was there was never a dull moment. He could say
something incredibly witty and fun and cocky and arrogant and hilarious.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
And backing up as a player by the way, Yes.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
And he could do it all the time, right, he
was that kind of guy. But after the Galaxy he left,
he went back to Europe, finished his career. But now
he's back, and I can't wait to see what he's
going to do over the course of the next month. Now, tonight,
the focus was on the game with the United States, right,
and Lawton certainly had some good things.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Hey, he told America believe believe, you can believe.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
Now.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
It's a great moment there.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
And he's standing next to the guy who was the
focus of the Fox pre and post game. By the way,
Alexi Lawless, he's being overshadowed by this new hire.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It's Lalas and theory on ree and and it's you know,
it's a really big deal. And so now they have
this this new booth, it's like, whoa, well, what are
they going to say? And it's latton Is. I mean,
he's so incredibly entertaining. Here's a bit from just from
tonight him and Alexi Lawless talking about Erling Holland and
what they expect to see from him in the World
(22:56):
Cup and just listen to the back and forth between
the two of them and let us't know what Laton
has to say.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
But I'm telling you right now, if this man has
a big World Cup, boom right to the top, even
over this guy.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
I love you.
Speaker 7 (23:08):
I love you, see, but I will take Holland over
you if he has. If he has a big World
Cup in terms of legendary status, that's a big statement.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
I'm not sure about that. Yeah, he needs to do
much more to reach the freak of nature.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
Really, what does he have to do if he starts
in this World Cup? Give it everything that he's already.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
He does goals.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
He's a killer in the bugs, but I saw myself
more around. I like to play with the ball.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
You think he's one dimensional.
Speaker 6 (23:36):
Yes, he's a killer in the bugs, but that's enough.
He's intelligent, he does what he needs to do. He
doesn't do more than he's able to do. He doesn't
waste energy on that. I saw an interview with him.
He said, my dream is to touch two balls, score
two goals. I would say different, my dream is to
touch two balls, score three goals.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
And just getting warmed up's lot time by the way
is Loton is the same height and weight that we
were just talking about, so unusual for soccer. And he's right,
he wasn't just a stand in the penalty of the
area guy at six five ten.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
No, No, it's just the fact that it's lots on
and you know that they're egging him on a little
bit by saying because they know.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
It's going to say because there's more in the tank.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I would take him over you and just right away
when's lot time goes, I don't know about that, I
take me. He's gonna be the breakout star of the
World Cup where every night where here in the United States. Look,
there's gonna be the United States game nights and then
there's gonna be the other nights. There's gonna be big
games that everybody's paying attention to. And Mexico plays, you know,
(24:44):
we we had a couple of big matchups and uh
in group. You know, Norway playing France will be a
big one obviously, but the general entertainment that slowly because
Latton is going to be responsible for like it's gonna
be every day You're gonna check blogs the next day
going what did Laton say last night? What did he
say in the coverage last night, here's a moment that's
(25:06):
Laton had to say, like, this is a guy that
can be a legendary commentator for the next twenty years
because he'll be seventy five years old. And what what
what what do you think Earling Holland? Now, uh, you know,
nine hundred and fifty career goals, he is still not
as good as Lato. He is still not this good.
Like the the the cockiness, the arrogance, but the charisma
(25:28):
that he has. And you know that's Laton's doing it
with a wink to the audience as well. But also
I'm doing it with a wink. But you also know
that I am the best player in the world. I
was the best player in the world when I played
like he's so he just has everything you want in
an entertainer, right. And then when when when he first
came to the United States, when it came to the
United States and he was playing for the uh playing
(25:49):
for the Galaxy, was right after Lebron had signed with
the Lakers, and and you know, they asked him what
do you think and he says, oh, now Los Angeles
has a god and a king, right, like you know
the King James, how they have a god and a
kid like this is who he was and he was
so he was so much fun to listen to and
hear him talk, and he would talk about like they
would ask him crazy questions press conference, like, hey, he's
(26:10):
a lot of time. What do you think about Area
fifty one? I know one thing about Area fifty one?
What there's no one there likes lotime? Right Like I'm like,
what kind of answer is that? But you know, I
mean the back and forth he would have with reporters,
like people are gonna see it. Like like I said,
people are gonna see Arling Holland on a new level
here across the globe because it's the World Cup and
it's the first time he's had a chance to be
(26:31):
this dominant being twenty five years old, best striker on
the planet. Like the same thing. Everybody's gonna get a
sense of his slat time because Big Fox every day
all the matches. Alexi Lawless knows I can go back
and forth with him and talk about things. I know
how to push buttons. Same thing with Henry. I mean,
this is gonna be something where every night he's almost
gonna be like Charles Barkley. You know, when you're watch it,
(26:52):
what does Charles Barkley have to say about the NBA Finals.
In fact, When's Lawton was asked last night on the
eve of the United States game, is hey, you know,
people say you could be the Charles Barkley of the
World Cup. And he goes, no, I bet that I
have won. Charles has not one. I have won and
Barkley has never won. Right like this, this is what
I say on the back of the world.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Do you remember the one game when he was with
the LA Galaxy. He had played in pretty much every
famous club Europe had and then came over to Major
League Soccer before twenty twenty, There was a night on
this show where they put on national TV the Galaxy
game against LAFC and I think the Laton's team. The
(27:32):
Galaxy fell behind one nothing and he scored. They fell
behind two to one and he scored again. They fell
behind three to two, and he scored again. It was
that type of thing where he had probably about fifty
games for the Galaxy and scored about fifty goals. Well,
he was over here, he had an amazing career already
and then at an advanced age just topped it once.
(27:53):
He came over here a long career, deserves to speak
and yes he's completely and totally stuck up, but he's
exactly the right tire for Fox and to slot him
next to Alexei Lawless, who some people say, you know,
he kind of sucks the air out of the room
or that's an extreme statement, believe it or not, it
almost balances that. And then you throw Henri with all
(28:16):
of his not only playing in England in Premier League,
but his championship with France. It's it's a nice group
and of course you have a superb host in Rebecca Love.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
What watching's lots on is kind of gonna be like
the real life Roy Kent. Like when Roy Kent was
an analyst in Ted Lasso and they said, Roy, what's
being said in that locker room? How the blank should
I know?
Speaker 4 (28:37):
I'm not in that?
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Well, Roy, we don't want to curse on television, you know,
like it's gonna be. He's gonna be a real life
Roy Kent on television. That's what he's gonna be.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
So they needed delay immediately. It's what you're saying, Yeah,
have your finger on that dumb button.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
You never know what he's gonna say. Have the finger
on that button ever? Ready?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
H So I get expecting huge, huge things. There's lot
on as the World Cup just getting started again, only
a couple of matches so far, the the host nations
getting to open up first and in most of the
time opening up in matches they can win. Sorry Canada,
but get ready for his lat On Holland your big
breakout stars of the World Cup. Speaking of breakout stars,
(29:15):
Boba Schett had two home runs to night. Steve the
Seger has more on that. With what's trending right now
in the one sports.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
We might get to that. There was a tiny little
thing called the US World Cup opener tonight in Los
Ange in front of seventy thousand Raucus fans the Americans,
to say the least, gave them something to cheer for.
The first American goal came in the seventh minutes against
Paraguash now draws.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
The other team splits another team Politic in the box.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
Less than seven minute.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Time game on Fox TV, of course. Now Christian Polisic
was subbed out at halftime after being kicked in the calf,
but the Americans were up three nothing at the time
for to one over Paraguay the final. The US had
sixteen shots in the game, thirteen of them came from
inside the penalty area. The offense had its foot on
the gas the entire first half and then some afterwards.
(30:13):
Just an unbelievably impressive showing their best World Cup effort
in over twenty years at least. Fau Bellagoon with two
goals in the first half for the Americans, one in
the thirty first minute, one at the end of the
first half. Next up for the Americans. Remember every team
is guaranteed three games in a World Cup. That is
you against the other three teams in your group always.
(30:35):
The US plays next Friday in Seattle against Australia that
will be a day game, and then Turkey a in
a couple weeks back in La against the Americans. If
you want to scout the opposition. By the way, guess what,
there's not only the three games on Fox TV tomorrow,
and that includes Brazil against what was a surprisingly good
(30:55):
Morocco team at the last World Cup. That'll be in
New Jersey Saturday, six pm Eastern on Fox TV. There's
a game late tomorrow night midnight Eastern on FS one
and it's Australia against Turkey. The next two US opponents
play each other. Late Saturday night, Canada opened its World
Cup with a game in Toronto, tying Bosnia Herzegovina one
(31:17):
to one with a goal in the seventy eighth minute.
Bosnia was whistled for double the fouls today twenty to ten.
Canada had never even tied a game in the World Cup.
It had been zero to six all time with only
one total goal until today. The excitement of the FIFA
World Cup is now streaming live on Fox one, the
official English streaming platform, to catch every unforgettable moment. Fox
(31:39):
one brings the action straight to your screen so you
never miss a goal. Download Fox one and experience the
FIFA World Cup live. What a tournament we have already underway.
And by the way, as we look toward games that
some of us really really want to see, can I
just mention that there is a place off the coast
of Africa with population of only five hundred thousand in
(32:02):
the whole country that qualified for this World Cup. Cape
Verde plays number one rank Spain in its opener in
the first of the four games on Monday on Fox TV,
so fallis.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
I bet Cape Verde and he's getting eleven goals.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Sometimes there are things that are train wrecks in sports
that you just can't look away from. I hope it's
not five nothing, but I am unbelievably curious about that
game to start the Monday schedule. Yes, in Major League Baseball,
the Mets did win over Atlanta seven to five the
final bo Bashett two homers, six RBIs beat a Braves
team that still has the best record in the Majors.
(32:40):
But it's forty five and twenty four now you have.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Mets are now fourteen games out of first place.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Spencer Strider, the losing Brave starter. He left with a
sore arm. Toronto ended the Yankees four game winning streak
eight to five. Yankees were in a tie virtual tie
for first in the Al East with the Rays. To
open up the day, White Sox beat the Dodgers eight
to two. The White Sox at home have won nineteen
of twenty two. The lost to LA's Rokie Sasaki. Shoe
(33:08):
Otani was out with knee inflammation. The Dodger offense went
four for thirty. Nothing was better in baseball tonight than
Milwaukee starter Jacob Mazerowski a complete game one hitter to
beat the Phillies six nothing. He struck out fifteen. Houston
won ten to eight at Kansas City. Jordan Alvarez in
the first inning had two home runs six RBIs, including
(33:29):
a grand slam. Houston led nine to nothing in the
top of the first. Minnesota is a winner with two
solo homers. Bottom of the eighth, nine to eight over
Saint Louis. Angels had beaten Tampa Bay four to three
the two late games. Cubs still up five to nothing
at the Giants bottom of the ninth. The A's playing
not in West Sacramento, but at their Triple A stadium
this week, northwest of Las Vegas. A's are now leading
(33:51):
five to four over the Rockies bottom of the eighth.
And by the way, the College World Series started today
wins for West Virginia and North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Back to you, Thank you, Steve O, Jason Smith, Steve
de Sager in for Mike Carmon. Coming up next, we
got more from Team USA's first day in the World Cup,
including a controversy that I can't believe has gotten this big.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
It's next right here, this is Fox Sports Radio Defense.
Speaker 6 (34:16):
We're demanding something, and I gave them to let them.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
App Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Special
delivery Steve de Sager in for Mike Harmon and in
the UH in the Pantheon of I can't believe this
has become as big a controversy.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
It has become.
Speaker 8 (34:49):
UH.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
This from the World Cup today and it involves the
United States, but it's not game oriented.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
With the win over Paraguay.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Okay, so earlier today, now you do, all the host
nations get to play the first few games, and Canada
played earlier today and they tied one to one against
Bosnia Herdsovinia and Jesse Marsh is the head coach of Canada,
and big soccer fans know. Okay, there's been a big
history with Jesse Marsh, the head coach of Canada and
(35:20):
the United States. He is a United States coach who
was very upset that he got passed over for the
national job a few years ago. Yeah, he had coached
on staff with US Soccer previously and was very upset
that he wasn't given the job in twenty twenty three
after Greg Berhalter's contract expired after the twenty twenty two
(35:43):
World Time.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
He was a Bob Bradley assistant many years ago.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yes, he has talked about his frustrations with the United
States and US Soccer said, I wasn't treated very well.
He played for the United States for a while and
he has since gone to Canada and there's been a
couple of games where things have gotten a little chippy
cause of this. But Marsh today, I really don't understand
what he's trying to do here. And Clint Dempsey, former
(36:10):
USMNT legend commentator now for Fox, has jumped back and
clapped back at Jesse Marsh, who said that ahead of
the United States game tonight that in the United States
sometimes we had to beg players to sing the national anthem.
This is now, This is going back like fifteen years
and it's like whoa, whoa. But this wasn't We couldn't
(36:32):
get guys to stand for the national anthem, We couldn't
get guys to respect the flag. This is not something
like in the last ten twelve years where it's been
we're kneeling for the flag.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
We're not.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
No, this is going back like in twenty eleven, like
before any of this stuff came up, we had to
beg players to sing the national anthem. And it's like, okay,
what does that really mean? And he said, quote, these guys,
the Canadian players sing the national anthem, belt it out
at the top of their lungs because they want to
show the country how proud they are to be here,
to be Canadians and to represent what Canada is. So
(37:04):
I guess Steve he wants to win the national anthem off,
like like, oh, because my guys are singing. My guys
are singing it, so they're better for their country. They're
more Canadian than Americans, who we've seen plenty of people
become emotional or during the national anthem, they sit and
they think about things, they think about the game.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
They think.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
You know, just because you're not singing it doesn't mean
you're ignoring it yet, Jesse Mark, I think wants to
have a national anthem.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Coop Sirianni comes to mind.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Sure, yeah, I want to go. I want to have
a national anthem off. We're better in Canada at the
national anthem in the United States.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
This is the verbal equivalent of the national anthem offs
that we've seen in baseball, where a couple of guys
are still standing at attention in front of the dugout
and the game's ready to start, and they don't want
to be the They want to be the last one
to leave, so like, I can stay out here longer
than you two of us. Two of those guys got
kicked out for not leaving and getting in the dugout
(37:57):
so they could start the game by a week ago.
But when they brought it up to Dempsey. I saw
this on one of the pregame shows today. His first
come was he really said.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
That, Yeah, yeah, I mean this is this is so
what's the word stupid?
Speaker 4 (38:10):
This is so slick? What is Jesse Morris?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
You sound like the bitter ex who like, I'm just
gonna tell you how I have it better now and
I bought my new boyfriend or girlfriend is better now
than your than it was back there. Like, really, you
want to complain about the guys singing not disrespecting the flag.
This is not about disrespecting the flag. This is about
just singing the national anthem. Here's Clinton Dempsey and his
(38:33):
response from earlier.
Speaker 9 (38:34):
Today represented the United States not only as a player,
but as an assistant coach as well. Yesterday, he had
a comment that caught our attention. He said that when
he was an assistant with US under Bob Bradley Clinton,
he had to beg the players to sing the national anthem.
Speaker 8 (38:52):
He really said that. He said that, Man, I can't
take this guy too seriously. I mean, it was an
honor for me growing up and representing my country, and
when the national anthem happened, I would I wasn't someone
who normally would sing. I put my hand over my
heart and I'd pray to the good man upstairs. I'm
someone who's bled for this country. I broke my nose
playing for this country. I've come back from two heart
procedures and played for this country. So I'm not gonna
(39:14):
take advice from someone who switched to the other side
and singing another country's national anthem. As my boy T
T would say.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Stay in your own lane.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
It looks like he's in a.
Speaker 8 (39:23):
Dang mopad, So where about your own teams?
Speaker 4 (39:25):
WHOA I like it.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I'm not gonna take advice guy who's switching. He's going
and he went to another team now because they wouldn't
give him the job of the United States. Like Mars
just sounds bitter. Like if you want to talk about
things that happened with the United States and why you
got passed over, I get it. You want to talk
about the culture within the United States and everything, I'd.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Like to hear that part. But yeah, the guy was
just a pest anyway, going back to his playing days.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
I mean, just you want to go back and say
just because the guys weren't singing the national anthem, like
what like, that's where you're going for this, Like that's
what you want to break. Because again, you see players
and they're Some players are emotional and they mouth the words.
Some people sing, some people don't.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Some people cry yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Some people bow their heads. Some people use the national
anthem to get ready for the game. There's all sorts
of things. Right again, no one was disrespecting anything. And
I want to sit here and say, ah, we're better
at singing the national anthem than you are. Okay, great,
you know what we're better at than you playing soccer?
How about that? How about that we're better at playing soccer.
You can have the national anthem, we'll take soccer. That's okay,
(40:32):
we'll take hockey and now we'll take soccer. So we'll
take everything now, Silver medalist country, Canada, we'll take everything
from you now.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
So what Marsha's point actually was, as we break it down,
is I was an assistant coach and fifteen years ago.
I think what I experienced in my brief time with
the US goes toward what they are now. And compare
that to what I'm seeing from Canada, I'm not sure
about that.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Again, Clint, do worry about yourself. Worry about your teeth,
you tied, you may not make it out of your
knockout round, you worry about yourself. Coming up next, we
get back into the biggest story of the night. This
is Fox Sports Radio Balligan Yoe
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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